Iron Monument Military Town, General Military Bureau.

As soon as Chen Qingniu walked down the steps, a short and thin old man trotted in, eagerly shouting "General Chen". Chen Qingniu turned his head to look at this person, he had a deep memory of this person, in addition to his "outstanding appearance", the old man who should be of mediocre status in this official mansion probably coughed twice in the interval between Wu Zhen's words.

He panted and said: "General Chen, General Wu ordered me to take you to the residence in the city, settle down first, all the way, you don't need to rush to the barracks, rest for ten and a half months first, it's all right, according to General Wu's words, it is to enter the Iron Monument Military Town, that is his own family, if he speaks and does things politely, then he will not be given the surname Wu...... Oh no...... General Wu has lost face. ”

Chen Qingniu was amused in his heart, and he didn't expose the old staff's pretense of confusion.

That Wu head dislikes that he is an embroidered pillow, rather than going to the garrison barracks to occupy a place, and then squatting in the thatched pit and not, it is better to keep it in the military town, out of sight and out of mind.

Chen Qingniu clenched his fists respectfully and asked, "Dare to ask what Mr. is called?"

After hearing the question, he returned the salute with his fists, and said with a smile: "Don't have your surname Pei, a native of Huaiyin County, Yuzhou, General Chen can call me Lao Pei." ”

After Chen Qingniu shouted Mr. Pei, he saw the old man's eyelids tremble, Chen Qingniu suppressed his surprise, and asked curiously: "Even a martial artist of my rank has an official mansion in the Iron Tablet Military Town?"

The old man surnamed Pei explained with a smile: "The rank of the general is not low, and all the expenses of the house, except for the lack of land deeds, are all available, including all the brand-new items that have just been purchased, as well as two maidservants who are responsible for food, cleaning and other chores, are not included in the Xiliang military expenses, and they are the benefits that our Wu General earned privately for his brothers." ”

Chen Qingniu sighed: "I thought that the border gate career, tempered by wind and sand, was the drudgery of 'picking up cow dung and drinking horse urine', but I didn't expect to be able to suffer such a blessing." ”

The old man smiled stupidly, thinking that if it weren't for this, there would be only a few old brothers who could really fight in the Iron Monument Military Town, and there would be no benefits, wouldn't it be for the other town lords to dig the wall and completely hollow out, in fact, in the past five or six years, the situation in the Iron Monument Military Town has indeed deteriorated, no less than ten middle-level military generals, and they have changed their methods to other military towns, most of them are just official positions, and there are even people who do not hesitate to lower the rank to serve elsewhere, which is simply a big slap in the face of Wu's head.

Twenty years ago, the glory of "Xiliang cavalry generals, half out of the iron tablet" and "the Great Sui Border Army, when encountering the banner of the eighth battalion of the iron tablet, retreated before fighting" has long been forgotten by the current Xiliang border army.

Tiebei Town covers an area quite wide, a total of nine streets, in addition to the magnificent military town office, there is also a squire funded to build a academy, by the government into the copywriting, according to the etiquette system, respectively located in the east and west of the Confucian Temple and the Wu Temple, a city god temple, two long and wide two hundred steps of the square market, because the military town generals and captains and their families and businessmen and gentry, are gathered in Xicheng, so it presents a pattern of wealth in the west and poverty in the east, and most of the objects sold in Xifang are more exquisite and luxurious.

Chen Qingniu's house is near Xifang, food, clothing, housing and transportation are extremely convenient, the most important thing is to be quiet in the middle of the noisy, according to the old man Pei, the yard is at the end of Huitou Lane, the reason why the alley is called Huitou, is that the road all the way to the end, is the courtyard wall of a private mansion, and then this road is not passable. At the southern end of the alley, there is a temple not far away, the incense is mediocre, and then it is about the pilgrim who lives in the north city, and the name given to this alley that is not open to the north and south.

Lao Pei, the enthusiastic and diligent head snake of the Iron Monument Military Town, Chen Qingniu still does not know the official position of this person in the official residence of the military town, but it does not delay the two of them to start calling each other brothers, one Brother Pei and one Brother Chen, like an old friend who has known him for most of his life.

Not to mention anything else, Lao Pei, the head snake of the land, is very competent and dedicated, from the origin of the layout of the poor and rich in the east and west of the town, the short and short parents of the powerful families, and the gossip, to the nearly 100-year history of the Tiebei Military Town, and the customs and customs of the southern Sui Xinjiang in the north of the border.

Chen Qingniu sincerely felt that it was a pity that the spitting brother next to him didn't go to the restaurant to be a storyteller.

On the contrary, Chen Qingniu and his nemesis Liu Qi admired two kinds of people the most when they were young, except for Wang Qiong's powerful masters in the rivers and lakes, they are those storytellers who can always attract applause in the restaurant.

It's like those old people, with a full stomach full of stories, as long as they take a sip of wine, burp a drink, and follow the smell of wine, a wonderful story will blurt out.

The temple was small, with green tiles and yellow walls, hidden among the lush foliage of ancient trees.

Lao Pei saw the alley that sloped upward, the slope was steep, next to the foot of the temple wall, at a glance, the green shade was rich, and the deeper it went, the more green it was, and the old man felt a madness for no reason.

Chen Qingniu was pulled on his sleeve by the puppet who settled in his sleeve and ignored it. Old man Pei secretly swallowed a mouthful of saliva and walked in. The alleys are cramped and narrow, not enough for a carriage to pass through, and the ground is paved with large bluestone slabs that are rare in the Tiebei Military Town, which are connected from end to end, and have been trampled on by passers-by day after day for hundreds of years, rubbing them shiny and smooth, and there is a strange beauty.

Huitou Lane is a quiet and simple alley, which is very different from the noisy and dirty in most places in the military town, and the more this is the case, the more panicked Old Man Pei becomes. It turns out that this house in Huitou Lane is indeed a benefit issued by the Tiebei Military Town to the generals, the house is indeed a good location, and it is also big, plus the big objects in it are almost all high-class goods, it is a good place to steal a concubine and hide the golden house, in the previous Tiebei Military Town, not everyone can live.

But these are the old yellow calendar, about ten years ago, there was a shocking tragedy in Huitou Lane, the two in-laws in the adjacent two houses, together with the other seven or eight families in the alley, in one night, all cut off the heads, so far I don't know who the murderer is, not only the Liangwang Mansion dispatched a number of big offerings, it is said that even the capital has a fairy in the people to investigate the case.

At that time, it was strictly forbidden to leak out of the military town, and the common people were not very aware of this tragic bloody case, at most they had heard of it, and they heard that there had been deaths in Huitou Lane, but in the military town, everyone talked about it, and since then there are few outsiders renting this Huitou Lane.

Wu Zhen is hope, how big the disappointment is, he really can't hold back that bad breath, and he doesn't dare to talk to King Liang or Ma Wei's General Wuwei, in a fit of anger, he asked Old Man Pei to lead the bastard surnamed Chen to Huitou Lane, planning to let Chen Qingniu "enjoy Qingfu" here.

It's just that these insiders, of course, the slippery old Pei will not put them on his lips.

According to what he and Chen Qingniu said, only the courtyard had already greeted in advance, and they had already started to buy it.

Chen Qingniu closed his eyes, silently felt the flow of fortune of the temple, and did not feel any unusual "momentum", and then smiled dumbly, compared to Liangzhou City, the first city in the northwest, the Tiebei Military Town is too much worse, where are there so many Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragons.

Old man Pei found the house, it was actually a house at the end of the road, and there was a pair of dilapidated door gods, colored paper pasted on the door, which had not been replaced for too many years, and was beaten into white paper by the wind and rain.

The old man handed a bunch of keys to Chen Qingniu, made an excuse and left, as if the courtyard was pushed open, it was a Longtan tiger's den.

The courtyard door was not locked, it should be the so-called maid of Old Man Pei who was cleaning, and sure enough, it was dusty, and I saw two maidservants, one of whom was standing on the ladder with a rag, and was wiping a red lacquered pillar in the corridor, and the other was holding the ladder, with a wooden barrel resting at his feet.

The young maidservant girl has a thin body, yellowish skin, dry hair, and a very good embryo that has ruined life, leaving only a pair of delicate eyes, which adds a little vitality.

The slightly older maidservant, about fourteen or fifteen years old, is just a middle-aged person, but at this time the arms are stretched and stretched, revealing the girl's body curve to the greatest extent, but it is only slightly moving, seductive, and it is far from being called.

The two girls are seven or eight points similar, and they should be a pair of sisters.

Chen Qingniu looked around, and Xie Shiji was about to make a move, when he heard Chen Qingniu say softly: "It's okay. ”

Xie Shiji nodded.

The older girl hurriedly got down the ladder, her face was slightly red, and said, "General, the slave maid is called Xiaozhu, and the slave's sister is called Xiaowu, in fact, our sisters have lived in the opposite house since childhood. The deed of the slave and maid is now in the military town mansion

Side, I heard that the general was coming to live, so I quickly cleaned up. The futon and other items were just bought, so the general didn't have to worry. ”

The speech is clear and the accent is soft and waxy.

Chen Qingniu nodded with a smile and said: "Okay, you guys should go back today, since you live opposite, you don't have to deliberately move to this house, if I have something, I will let my maid call you, her surname is Xie, you can call her Sister Xie." By the way, let's just leave things there and we'll clean them up ourselves. ”

Xiaowu hid behind her sister and glanced at Xie Shiji, who was two heads taller than her, a little afraid.

The girl who called herself Xiaozhu didn't seem to expect to be so kind and talkative, hesitated for a moment, gave a slightly rusty blessing, and left with her sister.

Gently closing the courtyard door and walking down the steps, my sister Xiaowu said in a low voice: "Sister, the general's smile just now...... It's so obscene, I almost can't help but take out the scissors. ”

Sister Xiaozhu smiled: "Actually, it's okay...... The most unfortunate thing to look at is not the vicious bad guy, but just laughing...... It's really not like a serious person. ”

"Sister, then when we go to the house over there in the future, do we still need to bring scissors?"

"Of course!"

"My sister just said 'not like' a bad person, but a bad person won't carve a bad word on his face, and besides, if he is a sanctimonious hypocrite, it will be even more terrifying. ”

My sister made a gesture of scissors and snorted angrily: "Sister, don't worry, if he dares to do anything to you, I will click him! ”

My sister pressed down her gesture with her hand and said helplessly, "Don't do this." ”

My sister snorted coldly, "You have this kind of temperament, and you are the easiest to be bullied! Be careful that guy originally didn't have the guts to come here, but when he saw you talking so well, he had a bad heart." ”

My sister was so angry that she twisted her sister's arm and said angrily: "Nonsense, don't think so badly about people." ”

The younger sister, who had never refused to suffer, immediately returned to her yard with color, playing and making trouble.

Of course, Chen Qingniu in the courtyard could hear the whispers of the two sisters, and rubbed his cheeks with both hands, a little injured.

Xie Shiji, who is tall, has already begun to wipe the pillars, and with her back to her son-in-law, she smiled a little gloating.

There is a loquat tree planted in the small courtyard, and there is a stone table and a stone bench under the tree, Chen Qingniu sits on the stool, and the puppet climbs out of his sleeves and circles around the stone table, as if he is inspecting the territory, and asks curiously: "Those ghosts dare to show up to provoke you, why don't you add the demon refining pot or the spirit flag by the way?"

It turned out that after entering the courtyard just now, there was a faint demonic aura floating in the house next door, and he probed his brain on the high wall to look at the two of them.

Chen Qingniu said casually: "It's like if you just moved to a new place, and the neighbors came out to see you, and you were going to punch them to death? ”

It laughed angrily: "Yin and Yang are separated, the difference between life and death, how can it be regarded as a neighbor?!"

Chen Qingniu still looked careless, "Anyway, as long as there is no murderous intent, then everyone will be fine." I don't need to accumulate merit and waste that energy on what to do. ”

It looked at the high wall to the west and wondered, "There are clearly heavy traces of evil qi here, but for some reason, there are not many yin qi and filthy qi. ”

Chen Qingniu sounded at the small temple, "Could it be that it is close to the temple, or that there are people who have attained the Tao and have done Dharma here?"

The distinction between the yang and the underworld, the distinction between the ground and the underground, is roughly in line, but not absolutely. There are also many places in the yang world that are called haunted houses and yin houses by the common people, not to mention those famous ancient battlefields where blood flows thousands of miles, as well as tombs and barren mounds that no one can enter.

This Huitou Alley is a place suitable for Yin things to live in, of course, living people live here for a long time, there will not be much problem, unless it is the kind of person who is lucky and lucky, numerology is shaking, and Yang longevity is not long, will be hurt by this Yin Qi.

It thought for a moment, shook its head and said, "No, it's like a living person, who washes away most of the evil spirits with a body of yang energy, and the rest of what is left behind may be ghosts that are obsessed with cause and effect." ”

Chen Qingniu suddenly became interested, "If it's true, we can just pick up the leak." It's hard to say over there in Liangzhou City, if there is a good cultivation embryo in this Iron Tablet Military Town, as long as it is not the Confucian reading seed, no one will fight with me, right?"

It closed its eyes, then froze for a moment, stomping its foot hard.

Chen Qingniu wondered, "Did you take the wrong medicine?"

It raised its arms and said with grief and indignation: "I don't even have a finger now, how can I pinch the trick and tell the hexagram?!"

At this moment, they heard the sound of reading in the courtyard of the opposite gate, and their voices were immature and clear.

The sound of books.

He is a young reader.

The painted puppet said in frustration: "It's just a reading seed!"

Chen Qingniu wondered: "Could it be that that pair of sisters has a brother? ”

It remembered something, and asked Xie Shiji to take off his pouch and put it on the table, one of the puppets was a chess player, and the sitting posture and the chess box were all resting on his legs, stabilizing the position in a wonderful inlay way, so as not to scatter.

It's just that Chen Qingniu has always regarded the two small chess boxes as decorations, thinking that they are just solid wood, and he never thought that after he carefully pried open the lid of a box, a whole box of chess pieces as white as snow was revealed.

The chess box is already pocket-sized, and a box of chess pieces contains one hundred and hundred and eight pieces, so you can imagine how subtle a chess piece is.

It offered treasure and said, "Do you know what kind of chess pieces it is?"

Chen Qingniu went straight to the point, "It's very valuable?"

It stretched out its hand to support its forehead, and all its blood was extinguished by cold water, "vulgar! vulgar!"

Chen Qingniu didn't care, leaned forward, squinted and carefully looked at the box of "piled up like snow" chess pieces, and still asked with great interest: "How is the valuation?"

It held the chess box in both hands and said solemnly: "Say it in advance, it belongs to me!"

Chen Qingniu smiled, just bent down, went to rummage through the books in his bag, and read the words, "Where is it?"

Needless to say, I am looking for "Rites and Justice".

The painted puppet was suddenly deflated, and snorted coldly, "There is a Ao River in the Great Sui, according to legend, there was a pair of male and female real dragons dormant in it a long time ago, one black and one white, and finally fell one after another for some reason, and the two real dragons 'reverse scales' were obtained by the Great Sui Imperial Court, and ordered the royal craftsmen to make two boxes of chess pieces, each one hundred and eight, which is not only a first-class treasure of heaven and earth, but also a pair of black and white chess pieces, which are used to talk about the game, especially the good meaning, which can be called unparalleled in the world, and it makes the two boxes of chess pieces worthless......"

Chen Qingniu hurriedly interrupted: "Wait, what do you mean by 'those two boxes'?"

The puppet can't roll its eyes, otherwise it must give this Chen Immortal Master a hard time, it raised its voice and did not hide its sarcasm, "Such a big chess box, can you take a break from it?!" Come, Chen Daxian Master, your old man will demonstrate to the slave maid......!

Chen Qingniu slowly picked up the wooden box containing the book.

The puppet's cynicism immediately came to an abrupt end.

One by one, the books were taken out by Chen Qingniu, carefully spread out, and placed on the stone table, and the puppets were squeezed on the "last pure land", holding the chess box, silently, taking care of their grievances.

In the late spring, the sun was warm, and a young man who had never read a book was drying a book in a small courtyard in a foreign land.

————

In fact, as far as the five sage classics are concerned, as long as Chen Qingniu is not deliberately drawn out of the pages of the book, the puppet will not be afraid, but it is just dislike it by nature, just like a layman who sees a snake and mouse on the road, he will bypass it, and if he really can't get around, he will be a little disgusting.

Chen Qingniu suddenly remembered something, stood up and said to Xie Shiji: "I'll take seven or eight taels of broken silver and give it to the other side." Then you tidy up the house. ”

The puppet muttered: "Once I was bitten by a snake for ten years, I was afraid of the well rope, for fear that there was a Great Sui assassin hidden in the door, so I had to go to the bottom to rest assured, to put it bluntly, what kind of lame excuse to find." Anyone in the world can be extravagant, but you, Chen Qingniu, will never be that good money boy in this life. ”

Chen Qingniu stretched out his finger and tapped it, and the latter immediately shut up.

Chen Qingniu took the silver and walked out of the courtyard.

Outside of his trip, Chen Qingniu didn't plan to spend lavishly, except for his own bag of gold particles, Xie Shiji only had five gold ingots and ten silver ingots in his bag, and a bag of broken silver, adding up to about nine hundred taels of silver Yellow and white belongings, these silver from the treasury of the domain, or snowflake silver, will have a certain premium when converted, the common people in the market use money, there are not many opportunities to use gold and silver, except for the purchase of mansions or bulk transactions, they are only used to make money, one or two silver is a thousand Wen, but if the silver is good enough, it can be used as one thousand two hundred Wen。 So in fact, Chen Qingniu is about holding a thousand taels of silver in his hand, as long as it is not the capital and those famous and prosperous states and counties, at most four or five hundred taels of silver, he can buy a good house. This is the same as the child of the Chen family, who is a general of White Horse County, and after all, there are many places where officialdom and human relations need to be spent.

Mrs. Fan once put forward a point of view: the cultivation of immortals, not only to cultivate strength, but also to cultivate the mind, both of both, and the cultivation of the mind is divided into two kinds, the mountain cultivates a "cultivation", the mountain cultivates a "human heart", the mountain cultivates "the ladder to the sky, I can go up", and the mountain is to cultivate "red dust and mud, I can get out". It's just that Mrs. Fan also frankly exposed her shortcomings, saying that she had been in the world for too long, was born too little, and entered the world too deeply, so that she fell to the embarrassing point of "going down and not getting up", so that after decades of cultivation, there was no progress, so she gradually became the object of ridicule and ridicule in Lotus Peak.

For Fan Xuanyu's early situation in the Lotus Peak, Chen Qingniu noticed it after entering the Guanyin Seat, women are jealous, just imagine that the huge Lotus Peak is all women, it is conceivable that the words that poke the backbone will definitely not be less, in fact, there are not a few female monks who scolded the white lotus Fan Xuanyu in private as "Fan Lao Bustard".

If there is no accident, it should be a peach wood texture. The two door gods carved are all dressed in military uniforms, the armor is solemn, the golden lin is shining, the eyes are angry, the lion belt is buckled, and the back is embroidered with colorful clouds and auspicious clouds.

Chen Qingniu was a little surprised.

In fact, he had noticed it before, otherwise he would not have made another move to give away the silver, but when he really watched it up close, it was still a little amazing.

It's like a golden phoenix coming out of a chicken nest.

It's just a pity that this pair of door gods has long been "decayed".

The Vermilion Bird Dynasty now uses paper door gods to change whether it is a wealthy mansion or a small household.

It can not only add to the festive mood, but also show off. As for whether it can really deter evil ghosts, the common people actually want to feel at ease.

The door god is divided into three kinds, civil and military and prayer, among which the scholarly door is often posted Wumen God, the door court will like to post the God of Wealth, civil and military mutual aid, is the Suzaku Dynasty up and down, an unwritten rule, and pray for the blessing of the door god, mostly small households, the drawing pattern is varied, ask for wealth and longevity, each has a different door god pattern, the bazaar of the county, the year ago, will be all kinds of door god colored paper as a kind of New Year's goods sold, the price is high, according to the size of the painter's fame, there will also be some temples and Taoist temples, there will be monks and Taoists who are good at Danqing, carefully draw more than a dozen, and then give it to some big pilgrims for free。

For example, the two largest temples and Taoist temples in the capital, the Qingyun Street, where dozens of Huangzi Gongqing and important ministers of the court live, almost every year when it comes to the New Year, they will begin to let the descendants of every household go to the temple Taoist temple to "invite the door god", which is extremely important.

In addition to the peach door god, there is also the first ring of the green lion shop.

Chen Qingniu slowly stretched out his palm and slapped the door knocker.